You will recall that on Sunday J. Hutton Pulitzer announced what he claimed to be the discovery of “Roman” human and cultural remains in “near conjunction” to Oak Island, Nova Scotia. This morning I received a statement from the Special Places division of Nova Scotia Communities, Culture and Heritage, the provincial department in charge of archaeology for the area surrounding Oak Island. Special Places confirms that there was no report made to them of a discovery of “Roman” human remains or “Roman” cultural artifacts anywhere in Nova Scotia, and Special Places has issued no permit for the excavation of human remains to J. Hutton Pulitzer, Xplrr Media, or any entity associated with them. While Pulitzer has not specified the location of his alleged discovery beyond being in “near conjunction” with Oak Island, Nova Scotia’s Special Places has jurisdiction over the entire province encompassing Oak Island. Any such discovery, therefore, has been unreported, misreported, or was made on the mainland, such as in New Brunswick or the U.S. state of Maine, points which are at least a hundred miles or more from Oak Island.

Meanwhile, Mysterious Universehas an article by Robbie Graham, the author of Silver Screen Saucers, asking a few pertinent questions about former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge’s involvement with the UFO disclosure community. The recent release of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta, a UFO enthusiast, revealed that Podesta had been in contact with DeLonge, another noted UFO enthusiast, and the two discussed UFO disclosure, with DeLonge explaining his claim that top military and government officials had fed him information about America’s knowledge of extraterrestrials.

Graham, however, rightly criticizes DeLonge for spinning his involvement with the UFO disclosure movement into a for-profit multimedia venture. DeLonge claims that based on information revealed to him by ten top officials he was able to determine the truth about UFOs and the government cover-up of them. He says that he is the chosen spokesperson for UFO disclosure. However, instead of disclosing this information to the public in a factual and direct way, DeLonge has started a multimedia company, To the Stars, Inc., to present the information under the guise of fiction, in a series of novels (with potential movie rights), through music, and through merchandising, such as clothing, stickers, coffee mugs, metal tokens, and more. Such claims have echoes of the old claim going back to Helena Blavatsky that science fiction is a vehicle for unconsciously channeling forbidden truths. Here, though, DeLonge wants us to believe that he is more of a Richard Shaver type character, telling truth in a fictional narrative because the public simply can’t handle the unfiltered truth.

Shaver presented the so-called Shaver Mystery, about a space-faring underground civilization, as a series of novels and short stories while claiming that they were based on facts.

Just as Shaver’s stories were secretly coauthored by publisher Ray Palmer to make them marketable, DeLonge’s novels are cowritten with other authors, such as A. J. Hartley, an English professor (in both senses) at the University of North Carolina and author of thrillers and mystery novels.

This much we’ve heard before. But Graham’s criticism of DeLonge is not limited simply to noting that DeLonge is a hypocrite for demanding disclosure and then promptly teasing it out for cash once he “received” disclosure for himself. No, Graham has his own bizarre cathedral of conspiracy, and he seems to think that DeLonge is being used as a disinformation agent by the national security state, which is engaged in something akin to a mind control experiment: “The DeLonge DeLusion (sic) has all the hallmarks of a new phase of an ongoing strategic experiment. The UFO community is not the target, merely a useful testing ground. … The information that DeLonge is presenting—and will present—is not the truth, it’s their truth (whoever ‘they’ are). At best, it’s a waste of our time—a distraction. At worst, it serves as soft propaganda in support of the US National Security State” (emphasis in original).

According to Graham, the entire anti-government UFO conspiracy industry is the creation of the government in order to hide the real truth about UFOs:

​It seems likely that elements within official power structures have more pieces of the UFO puzzle at their fingertips than do the rest of us, but it is extremely improbable that they have succeeded in solving the puzzle. Despite appearances and the power of their egos, in a universe that is some thirteen billion years old, the secret-keepers are monkeys like the rest of us, flailing around for answers in the early years of the 21st century on a planet whose dominant trend is war. It is doubtful the powers that be can even comprehend the underlying nature of UFO phenomena, much less explain it.

Graham, who presented himself as a rational investigator, reveals himself to be deep in the realm of conspiracy. Note his assumption that, even if it were true that the U.S. government was concocting a fake UFO narrative, the reason for it is because there is an incomprehensible truth behind UFOs. I have explored before how bureaucratic infighting between the FBI and the Air Force helped contribute to the perception of a cover-up, as well as the documentary evidence that the Air Force purposely allowed science fiction writers to spin UFO fantasies unopposed because they were useful for distracting from Cold War technology tests.

But Graham thinks there is something deeper because, while accusing DeLonge of naivete and a lack of critical thinking, he accepts that “UFO phenomena” are something mysterious, powerful, and incomprehensible. As I have pointed out before, there is no reason to associate sightings of lights in the sky with visitors from outer space, nor are the elements of the “UFO phenomenon”—lights in the sky, encounters with supernatural beings, abductions, cattle mutilations, etc.—necessarily related to one another outside of the science fiction narratives that gave rise to the “connection.” By accepting the idea of “UFO phenomena,” Graham buys in to a narrative that is itself a construct, a myth born of Golden Age science fiction space operas and nurtured in 1950s and 1960s media. This is all the more bizarre since Graham’s book, Silver Screen Saucers, purports to look at how science fiction shaped ufology.

I know it's connected, but how would you describe the rest of Canada and the United States to differentiate it? Sometimes there aren't any good words to describe things without unnecessary complication. I'm open to suggestions for a better way to describe it.

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A Buddhist

11/3/2016 11:41:03 am

I would not use the phrase "Nova Scotia’s Special Places has jurisdiction over the entire province encompassing Oak Island. Any such discovery, therefore, has been unreported, misreported, or was made on the mainland, such as in New Brunswick"

Rather, I would use the phrase Nova Scotia’s Special Places has jurisdiction over the entire province encompassing Oak Island. Any such discovery, therefore, has been unreported, misreported, or was made in a nearby province or state, such as the Canadian province of New Brunswick"

DaveR

11/3/2016 12:28:08 pm

A Buddhist, you're really nitpicking.

john (the other one)

11/3/2016 12:29:26 pm

If you care that much you should write your own blog entry about this topic. Your comment is a waste of time and unrelated to the message.

A Buddhist

11/3/2016 01:16:34 pm

I was not aware that trying to correct a statement that suggests that a peninsula is really an island is excessive nit-picking.

And I would dearly love to write, but my body is very sore and I can only use one finger to type, precluding my writing long passages.

I greatly admire Jason Colavito's work, but I do not like inaccuracies about geography, especially about my country. Newfoundlanders call the rest of Canada the mainland, but Newfoundland is an island without even a bridge linking it to the rest of Canada. Nova Scotia, on the other hand, is a peninsula with many islands (Including Oak Island). By the logic that I am being asked to accept, Massachusetts could be differentiated from the Mainland of the United States because Massachusetts has many islands and a prominent peninsula.

DaveR

11/4/2016 10:55:53 am

There is nothing in Jason's entry indicating Nova Scotia is an island or is in any way separated from mainland Canada. What you're complaining about is the words Jason used to describe the Special Places division of Nova Scotia Communities, Culture and Heritage and the lands falling under its jurisdiction, even going so far as to tell him how you would have written the sentence, that's nitpicking.

A Buddhist

11/4/2016 03:06:30 pm

DaveR: Jason explicitly invited me to provide an alternative suggestion, so how can I be criticized for that?

An Over-Educated Grunt

11/4/2016 03:46:54 pm

Guys, A Buddhist is pretentious and socially clueless, but looking back I've never seen a post that was deliberately awful or willfully stupid. Ease up.

Related, A Buddhist, I'm guessing you're a convert, probably later in life. I say this because conveys tend to be much more self-conscious about their beliefs and miss some of the nuance of growing up in a setting. Spouting minor corrections, or announcing that someone else's gods are evil demons, is part of what got early Christians outlawed and and used as lion food. Most of wisdom is judging time and place. Not that I always get that right either - I like fighting too much.

Americanegro

11/12/2016 10:01:28 pm

Sorry, I've seen this before and will not tolerate it, or at least wouldn't if I ruled the universe. You come off all bitterbtch and then fall back on "woe is me, I've got all these problems."

Check your imaginary privilege. Remember that time you were wrong about basic Buddhist stuff? Just. Stop.

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DaveR

11/3/2016 11:22:35 am

Delonge looks like he's merely attempting to cash in on his connection through emails to Podesta.

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Tom

11/3/2016 12:34:57 pm

I am amazed by just how gullible is the bulk of the UFO conspiracy community..
The US Government cover up revealed by "ten top officials", involvement by the NSA, the FBI, the Air Force, disinformation spread by members of the UFO community ....ad nauseum
What sort of "conspiracy" can be so tranparent to so many people and still be called a conspiracy?

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RobZ

11/3/2016 12:54:24 pm

Ahh... but that is the whole point of course, you see.

It's Pratchett's 'Headology' in practice.

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Bob Jase

11/3/2016 01:02:25 pm

Pulitzer would never lie about something as important as this discovery of Roman armor. I'm sure he did drive up to Nova Scotia to look for it on ebay thereby technically discovering it while he was in NS. That the armor was listed by a seller a thousand miles away is unconsequential.

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Joe Scales

11/3/2016 10:31:00 pm

"Disinformation agent"...

If only it could have been true that I was paid for such as claimed by those fringe defenders on numerous discussion boards over the past few years. It would have made my attempts at rational discourse with those idiots much more palatable.

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.